If you've spent the last 24 hours barricaded in your house for fear that a Soviet space probe might rain down on your head, you can finally go out without worries. Kosmos-482, this mysterious space object that has generated apocalyptic headlines in media outlets around the world, has splashed down in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta. No casualties, no damage, no cities destroyed. Just another demonstration of how unjustified fear can spread quickly, fueled by those who prefer sensationalism to scientific accuracy.
Because the real story of this probe is much more interesting than the catastrophic scenarios imagined based on the clicks.
Story of a Space Failure
The object (part of the 482-year-old Kosmos-53 space probe) crashed into Earth around 9:24 a.m. Moscow time (8:24 a.m. Naples time where I write this, 2:24 a.m. on the East Coast of the United States) on Saturday, the Russian space agency said. Roscosmos.
There is no video of the fall of this nearly 500kg piece of technology (and as you might imagine, the cover image is an artist's reconstruction), but the tracking evidence suggests that the object landed in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia.
Debris from spent rockets and satellites enters Earth's atmosphere all the time, but most of it burns up before reaching the surface. Kosmos-482, however, was made of tougher material, designed to withstand the extreme pressure and heat of Venus, the planet where it was supposed to land just over 100 days after its launch in 1972.
Kosmos-482, fate sealed by a faulty timer
Kosmos-482's mission ended shortly after it began, when a rocket malfunction during launch meant it would never reach its destination. After the vehicle's upper stage failed to ignite properly, it became trapped in a highly elliptical Earth orbit where it remained for more than half a century before finally reentering Earth's atmosphere on Saturday.
Kosmos-482 was a twin probe of the Venus 8, launched just four days earlier. While Venera 8 managed to reach Venus and transmit data from its hellish surface for almost an hour, Kosmos-482 was not so lucky.
Why all the worry?
Perhaps someone with a tinfoil hat on their head might have been concerned about the large piece of metal falling on them, but theEuropean Space Agency He had tried to put things into perspective before his return, stating:
“The risk of any satellite reentry causing injury is extremely remote. The annual risk of an individual being injured by space debris is less than 1 in 100 billion. By comparison, a person is about 65.000 times more likely to be struck by lightning.”
Words that some “science popularization” sites have curiously omitted from their highly intriguing articles.
The Legacy of the Venera Program
Despite this failure, the Venera program Soviet remains one of the most impressive planetary exploration efforts in human history.
Between 1961 and 1983, the Soviet Union launched as many as 16 probes towards Venus, many of which managed to send data from the atmosphere and even from the surface of this hostile planet, where temperatures reach 464 degrees Celsius and atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of Earth.
Il Venus 7 It was the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on another planet in 1970, and subsequent Venera probes sent back the first images of the Venusian surface.
Kosmos-482, what have we learned?
Perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from this story is not so much about space technology, but about how we react to the news (same old story, too). for asteroid 2024YR4: you still find people writing “watch out for danger”). The next time you hear about an imminent danger from space, remember that the Earth is mostly covered in water and the chances of something hitting you personally are incredibly remote.
And to you, “science news” sites that have ridden this news with alarmist headlines and apocalyptic scenarios: perhaps, instead of worrying people needlessly, take advantage of the opportunity to spread something interesting about the extraordinary history of space exploration.
